Pardon my Spanish, but WTF? So, the Indians knew all about Spain? They'd been there and back, no biggie?
No, the Indians thought they were the only people in the world, except for their enemies in the next three villages. That's the way it is, when you're Stone Age—Fred Flintstone without the wheel.
Here's how you measure who discovered whom: You go somewhere, you find something, and you make it back and tell folks all about it, so they know it too, and the whole (literate) world gains in knowledge and vision. That's "discovery." Discovery is not Barney Rubble on the beach, digging for clams, looking up, and turning to Fred to say, "Yo, what's that white, square thing on the horizon?"
That's why we say, accurately, that Columbus discovered America.
I wasn’t referring to the Indians. Although it does appear they came from somewhere else. I was referring to Lief Ericson. Also there’s evidence in South America of African settlers before then. And of course there’s the fact that Columbus landed in the Bahamas. He quite simply did NOT discover America.